JJB.L Share News (JJB)

JJB Sports is drawing up plans to tap shareholders for a second injection of cash as struggling retailers prepare for a tough year on the high street.The troubled sportswear chain is expected to ask investors to contribute up to £50m in the next few months on top of the £31.5m pledged in an emergency fundraising just before Christmas. JJB's dash for cash is indicative of the grim struggle faced by some retailers. Tesco is poised to turn the screw on rivals this week by slashing prices on hundreds of popular products, the Sunday Times reports.European debt markets could be hit by a second credit crisis within months as fears grow over the huge volume of new bonds that must be sold by governments and banks in 2011. Banks alone must refinance about €400bn (£343bn) of debt in the first half of the year, but add in the more than €500bn European governments must replace over the same period, as well as further hundreds of billions of euros of mortgage-backed debt maturing and there is the potential for chaos in the credit markets, the Telegraph reports.Brussels may force the break-up of Royal Mail as the price for approving the government's bailout of the postal service's huge pension deficit. The European Commission is considering whether the government's plan to take on the pension liabilities constitutes state aid that would give the business an unfair advantage over its competitors. Industry sources say Brussels may demand the sale of Royal Mail's most profitable divisions, including General Logistics Systems, its prized European parcels operation, the Sunday Times reports.Senior bankers have asked the Government for immediate guidance on how, and at what level, year-end bonuses can be paid amid growing confusion about increasing layers of regulation overlaying compensation in the financial services sector. The plea, from the heads of Britain's largest high street banks, has been directed to George Osborne, the Chancellor, and Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, over the festive period ahead of the bonus season which will begin in earnest later this month, the Telegraph reports.Banks are embarking on a radical overhaul of the way they pay their senior executives by considering how they can link their bonuses to the way they treat customers and build up capital. The move is a major departure from the traditional way of paying out bonuses, which has been done on the basis of how the bank's share price has performed relative to rivals, and the institution's profitability, the Observer adds.Thousands of angry iPhone users overslept and were even late for work and flights yesterday after a New Years Eve software glitch cancelled the phone's alarms. The iPhone's non-recurring alarms stopped working for a staggering two days after the clocks struck midnight to usher in 2011. Instead, thousands of smart phone owners got a surprise lie-in and many were forced to blame the glitch for being late for work, the Mail on Sunday reports.Russian steelmaker Severstal has hired former Anglo American boss Philip Baum to lead the spin-off of its gold unit into the FTSE 100. The move is a stunning turnaround in fortune for Mr Baum, who was ousted both from the Anglo boardroom and as head of the ferrous metals business a little over a year ago, when a layer of management was removed. An Anglo lifer, he was thought to be a potential future chief executive, but will now take that role at Severstal Gold instead, the Sunday Independent reports.One of Britain's largest inward investors is warning that it may pull the plug on its mobile-phone business unless it is guaranteed a level playing field in the forthcoming £5bn auction of the airwaves. Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong conglomerate behind 3, the mobile operator, is concerned that its larger competitors Vodafone and O2 will enter the auction with a significant advantage unless the amount of spectrum they are allowed to acquire is capped. Threats to quit the country have been made in representations to Ofcom, the telecoms regulator that is drawing up the auction rules, and Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, the Sunday Times reports.Activision Blizzard, the world's biggest publisher of video games, has described Britain's move to scrap tax relief for the industry a "terrible mistake" and refused to rule out moving its UK operations elsewhere. The US company employs around 600 highly-skilled developers and other staff at its British satellite office in Slough, Berkshire, the Sunday Times reports.Whitbread is eyeing a £70m deal to buy Coffee Nation, the vending machine operator, to help expand the leisure giant's fast-growing Costa Coffee division. If it goes ahead, the acquisition would mark the first strategic move by Whitbread's new chief executive, Andy Harrison. The company, which also owns the Premier Inn chain of budget hotels, is thought to have approached Coffee Nation's owner, the private equity firm Milestone Capital, about the deal, the Sunday Times reports.Punch Taverns, the pub giant, is considering selling its 50% stake in drinks wholesaler Matthew Clark, a move that could raise almost £60m. A sale will be discussed as part of an ongoing review by Ian Dyson, Punch chief executive, into how to reduce the company's £3bn debts. The pub group has received an approach for its stake in Matthew Clark from rival drinks wholesaler Waverley TBS, the Sunday Times reports.A top London-based hedge fund manager paid himself almost £10m for just three months' work. The eye-watering amount ? equivalent to about £111,000 a day ? was made by Colm O'Shea, founder of Comac, a Mayfair hedge fund. His windfall came a few months after he took home £74.6m for a year's work. Accounts filed by Comac, which manages more than $5bn (£3.2bn) of assets, revealed that the business turned over £14.1m in the first three months of this year, the Sunday Times reports.